1. Field of the Invention
Exemplary embodiments of the present invention relate to a liquid crystal display.
2. Description of the Related Art
As one of widely used flat panel displays, typically, a liquid crystal display (LCD) includes two display panels provided with field generating electrodes such as pixel electrodes and a common electrode, and a liquid crystal layer interposed therebetween. The LCD displays images by applying voltages to the field-generating electrodes to generate an electric field in the LC layer that determines the orientation of LC molecules therein to adjust polarization of incident light.
Among the LCDs, a vertical alignment (VA) mode LCD, which aligns LC molecules such that their long axes are perpendicular to the panels in the absence of an electric field, has been adopted because of its high contrast ratio and wide reference viewing angle.
In the vertical alignment (VA) mode LCD, the wide reference viewing angle can be realized by forming a plurality of domains including liquid crystal of different alignment directions in one pixel.
As for means for forming a plurality of domains in one pixel, minute slit or a cutout formed in the field generating electrodes or a protrusion formed on the field generating electrodes have been proposed. By using these methods, a plurality of domains may be formed by aligning the liquid crystal molecules vertically with respect to a fringe field generated between the edges of the cutout or the protrusion and the field generating electrodes facing the edges.
However, the liquid crystal display of the vertical alignment (VA) mode has lower side visibility compared with front visibility. Thus, it has been proposed that one pixel is divided into two subpixels and different voltages are applied to the subpixels to solve the low side visibility problem. As a method of applying the different voltages to two subpixels, a method of dividing the voltage applied to one subpixel through an additional switching element has been proposed to decrease a charged voltage thereof, thereby changing the voltages of the two subpixels. Because of the additional switching element, however, a difference of a kickback voltage between the two subpixels may be generated, and a visibility may be deteriorated by the difference of kickback voltage between the two subpixels.
Therefore, there is need for an approach to improve a visibility of a display panel.
The above information disclosed in this Background section is only to set up Applicant's recognition of problems within existing art and merely for enhancement of understanding of the background of the invention based on the identified source of problems, and therefore the above information cannot be used as prior art in determining obviousness into the present invention.